Ultrasonic-wave communication system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9709655-B2
Application number	US-201314649764-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 27, 2013
Priority date	Dec 28, 2012
Publication date	Jul 18, 2017
Grant date	Jul 18, 2017

Abstract

Provided is an ultrasonic-wave communication system where the influence of ambient noise and the Doppler effect are suppressed and where a user of a portable terminal is prevented from hearing unwanted sound. After performing encryption processing of predetermined information such as store information, a beacon 5 sends out predetermined-information-containing beacon information of one channel as ultrasonic waves into the salesroom 3 by combining a control carrier, a first carrier, and a second carrier in such a way that a first carrier signal and a second carrier signal are output between control carrier signals a number of times according to the predetermined information and that a state where the first carrier signal and/or the second carrier signal is output is maintained.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An ultrasonic-wave communication system which performs communication using ultrasonic waves between a beacon which emits ultrasonic waves and a portable terminal, wherein:
the beacon is configured to be able to emit a plurality of signal carriers predetermined as frequencies different from each other, to output a data signal formed by the plurality of signal carriers according to predetermined information between predetermined control signals each formed by one or more of the plurality of signal carriers for a predetermined number of times, and to form an emission pattern of the respective signal carriers of the data signals so that a sound pressure output from the beacon is within a predetermined range;
the portable terminal includes: a microphone; a demodulation processing unit which demodulates the plurality of signal carriers by analyzing frequencies or wavelengths of ultrasonic waves sent from the beacon upon receiving the ultrasonic waves; and a decryption processing unit which performs decryption processing to decrypt the predetermined information based on the respective data signals between the control signals recognized by the demodulation;
the ultrasonic-wave communication system comprises a server able to communicate with the portable terminal;
the beacon includes: a first clock unit; a first storage unit which holds data of a first encryption key random number table by which an encryption key according to a clock time of the first clock unit is determined by a predetermined logic; an encryption processing unit which encrypts the predetermined information by a first encryption key determined according to the first encryption key random number table; and an encryption key access prohibiting unit which prohibits access to the first encryption key random number table from units other than the encryption processing unit, and the beacon generates beacon information by using the encrypted predetermined information; and
the server includes: a second clock unit configured to have a clock time same as the clock time of the first clock unit; and a second storage unit which holds data of a second encryption key random number table having a same configuration as the first encryption key random number table, and the server recognizes the predetermined information by decrypting encrypted data, when receiving the encrypted data encrypted by the first encryption key from the portable terminal, by using a second encryption key obtained by applying the clock time of the second clock unit at receiving the encrypted data to the second encryption key random number table.

2. The ultrasonic-wave communication system according to claim 1 , wherein, in a case where n is a number of signal carriers set in the beacon, a number of signal carriers simultaneously output from the beacon is one or more and less than n.

3. The ultrasonic-wave communication system according to claim 1 , wherein:
a control signal and the data signal each have a rectangular wave; and
a pulse width of the data signal is determined based on a pulse width of the control signal.

4. The ultrasonic-wave communication system according to claim 1 , comprising a plurality of the beacons, wherein:
a combination of the plurality of signal carriers is individually assigned to each beacon with frequency settings different from each other, and each beacon generates beacon information of one channel formed by a control signal and the data signals based on the assigned combination and sends out the beacon information as an ultrasonic wave; and
the demodulation processing unit of the portable terminal receives the beacon information suitable for frequency characteristics of the microphone among the beacon information sent from the respective beacons and performs demodulation processing for the received beacon information.

5. The ultrasonic-wave communication system according to claim 1 , wherein:
the beacon generates beacon information of one channel formed by a control signal and the data signals and obtained by combining the plurality of signal carriers for a plurality of channels with the frequencies thereof different from each other and sends out beacon information of the plurality of channels in a form of ultrasonic waves; and
the demodulation processing unit receives the beacon information of a channel suitable for frequency characteristics of the microphone of the portable terminal among the beacon information of the ultrasonic waves of the plurality of channels sent from the beacon and performs the demodulation processing for the received beacon information.

6. The ultrasonic-wave communication system according to claim 1 , wherein:
the portable terminal includes a unit which acquires Internet information from the server through the Internet and a unit which outputs the acquired Internet information as ultrasonic waves from a speaker; and
the beacon includes a microphone and a unit which acquires the Internet information provided from the server via the portable terminal by receiving the Internet information of the ultrasonic waves output from the speaker of the portable terminal via the microphone.

7. The ultrasonic-wave communication system according to claim 6 , comprising a plurality of beacons,
wherein the beacon having acquired the Internet information from the server via the portable terminal outputs the Internet information in the form of ultrasonic waves from the speaker and other beacons receive the Internet information in a form of the ultrasonic waves through microphones, by which the Internet information is transmitted between the plurality of beacons.

8. The ultrasonic-wave communication system according to claim 1 , comprising a third storage unit which stores a predetermined number of data of the predetermined information with contents of the data different from each other,
wherein the beacon acquires the data of the predetermined information with the contents different from each other from the storage unit and updates the predetermined information used to generate the data signal when a number of times the data signal according to the predetermined information is sent out exceeds a predetermined number of times or when a period in which the data signal according to the predetermined information is sent out exceeds a predetermined period.

9. The ultrasonic-wave communication system according to claim 1 , wherein the beacon generates the plurality of signal carriers by performing amplitude modulation using signals indicating the predetermined information with respect to a plurality of carrier signals having frequencies outside an audible range.

10. The ultrasonic-wave communication system according to claim 1 , wherein a number of carrier signals simultaneously output from the plurality of signal carriers is constant due to an emission pattern of the signal carriers.

11. The ultrasonic-wave communication system according to claim 1 , wherein:
the beacon generates the data signal by using the encrypted predetermined information; and
the portable terminal recognizes the predetermined information by decrypting the encrypted predetermined information demodulated from the data signal received from the beacon.

12. The ultrasonic-wave communication system according to claim 1 , wherein:
the beacon changes a time between the control signals according to a class of the predetermined information; and
the decryption processing unit of the portable terminal identifies the class of the predetermined information by recognizing the time between the control signals.

13. The ultrasonic-wave communication system according to claim 1 , wherein:
the beacon outp

Assignees

• Rakuten Inc

Inventors

• Shibata Yo
• Takahashi Misato
• Sato Yuki

Classifications

• G01S1/75

  Transmitters · CPC title

• H04L63/0428

  wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload · CPC title

• H04L67/04

  specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability · CPC title

• G01S1/725 Primary

  Marker, boundary, call-sign or like beacons transmitting signals not carrying directional information · CPC title

• H04B11/00

  Transmission systems employing ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic waves · CPC title